26 Feb How the 80/20 Rule Can Transform Your Motherhood

Today I want to tell you how the 80/20 rule can transform your motherhood.

You must be efficient in motherhood.

Why Efficency for Moms is Key

As mothers, we wear so many hats. We need to be able to perform our motherhood tasks with efficiency and be a good steward of what we’ve been given.

Do you want to be super efficient and listen to this post while folding laundry or driving? Then listen to the podcast by clicking below!

God has given us all the responsibilities that come with motherhood, and He knows that we can handle them in His strength.

Efficiency is all about working smarter.

We can learn different tools and discover ways that other moms have found to help them become better moms.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but you do need to be intentional.

The 80/20 rule is a business rule that says 80 percent of your results come from 20 percent of your effort.

For instance, if there is a huge company that has many franchises, 80% of its sales likely come from 20% of their franchises. If you break it down from those individual franchises, 80% of their sales come from 20% percent of their customers.

Now, this isn’t a hard and fast rule. It’s just a trend that business analysts have seen and taken note of.

And I believe that it can be used in motherhood. Once I started using this principle it truly began to transform my home.

How to Apply the 80/20 Rule in Motherhood

Here are some practical ideas of how the 80/20 rule can transform your motherhood.

Minimizing Clothing

First, we have all had those dreaded mornings when we have nothing to wear. You go into your closet and see that it’s packed.

Based on this 80/20 rule you wear 20% of your clothes 80% of the time. If you evaluate your closet honestly, you’ll admit that this is likely the case for you, too. If you have 50 shirts you probably wear only 10 of those shirts on a regular basis.

Pare down your closet. I did this a couple of years ago and it made such an impact.

I no longer go into my closet and spend a lot of time looking for things to wear. If it’s in there I can wear it anytime.

I used to go and sort through all my clothes and plan out my wardrobe for the week. I don’t have to do that now because I can go in and grab anything off of the rack.

Imagine, looking into your closet and not having to think about what you should wear because everything goes together.

I took everything completely out of the closet and dusted all the shelves and walls.

I pulled out all my clothes and threw them all on my bed. My husband thought I was crazy, but I tried each thing on one at a time. I wore it in front of a mirror and I put it in a couple of different piles.

One pile was for the items that were not going to work out. It didn’t fit me, look the best on me, or it really wasn’t my style.

The second pile of clothes was filled with maybes.

The third pile was all the clothes I knew I was going to keep.

I rehung these clothes back up, and true to the rule, I had 20% of the clothes left in my closet.

When I pared down my closet, I was able to refine what my style was.

If you’re a mother and you are wanting to be efficient in your motherhood, you should have a signature style. You need to have go-to clothes that you can grab, put on, and you’re ready to go for the day.

That is how I dress every morning. I can pull out almost any shirt or blouse that’s in my closet and pair it with an outfit pretty easily.

It seems like the fewer clothes you have, the fewer outfits that you are going to have. But trust me, you have to try this.

It will only take about an hour or two of your time, but it will save you a lot of time in the future.

If it takes 10 or 15 minutes to try and figure out what you’re gonna wear each day, it will pay for itself in a week and a half.

Consider how you can use this method with your kid’s clothes. Take out some of their clothes and set them on a different shelf in the closet so that you’re not always sorting through tons of clothes.

Minimizing Items In Your Kitchen

Another area where we can utilize the 80/20 rule in our home is in the kitchen.

Going back to the theory of this rule, if you have 10 knives, there are two knives that you use 80% of the time. Same thing with pots and pans.

I’m not saying you have to throw out the 80%, but maybe consider putting them in a drawer and just have the utensils that you use most out.

Minimizing Meals

Another area to use this rule is in your meals. If you use this in your meals, then you eat 20% of the meals that you make, 80% of the time.

Make sure that you have the items for the meals that you make all the time. If you have your pantry stocked with these items you eliminate that “What’s for dinner?” question.

If 20 % of the meals that you make involve ground beef or chicken breasts, make sure you have some chicken or ground beef in your fridge defrosting.

Have your list of meals on the refrigerator. That doesn’t mean you can’t ever make anything else, but this will simplify your day to day meal routine.

Another part of the kitchen that can really benefit from this 80/20 rule is a stocked pantry.

Make a list of foods that you eat regularly. Consider the fact, that 20% of the food that you have in your pantry you eat 80% of the time.

Stick that list on your fridge and teach your family to mark things off as they use them.

If you run out of something, they can mark it on your list and you can use that list for shopping. Add the list of that 20% of meals that you make on your list.

Then your pantry can easily be stocked with food for your planned meals. This helps you work smarter, not harder.

This saves time in the grocery store. You don’t have to run around looking throughout the store because you know exactly what foods that you’re wanting to purchase.

Minimizing Your Kids Toys

Another area that you can use, the 80/20 rule is with your kid’s toys. Every mom struggles with the mountains of toys that their kids have.

I totally get this.

One of my strong love languages is gifts. I love giving my children gifts and love seeing the look on their faces.

But it got to the point where it was too much. There were toys strewn everywhere.

I think every mom has felt overwhelmed by this at some point. So let’s use this 80/20 rule to figure out how to deal with this issue.

As the rule goes, your kids are going to play with 20% of their toys 80% of the time. Pack the rest of the toys away, put them in boxes, get them out of sight, out of mind.

I am not talking about their favorite stuffed animal, but those toys they hardly ever touch.

If you encourage your kids to play with the 20% of toys that they do have, you can swap stuff out when they get bored (every 2 or 3 months) so it feels like they’re always getting new toys.

If you have Lego sets, and you are a more organized mother than I am, then maybe you can keep them separated by the boxes that they came in.

Let your kids play with the Lego sets that they normally play with and then switch them out once in a while.

Then they will feel like it’s a brand new toy. Your kids will be excited and you have 80% fewer toys to pick up. Doesn’t that sound amazing?

Thriving In Motherhood

I want you to know that what matters to you matters to God. Whenever you are struggling with too much stuff and just surviving motherhood, that matters to Him.

God wants you to thrive in your motherhood and He knows that your inner peace can be negatively affected by your surroundings.

The Lord gives us inner peace, but He also gives us the responsibility to take action and to place our cares on Him.

Your home can be a ministry for yourself and for your family. As I mentioned in a previous post, Morning Routines For Christian Moms, you can start to thrive by creating systems.

It takes getting rid of stuff. And I know it doesn’t seem super spiritual, but getting rid of all the garbage, all of the clutter, all of the junk that you don’t use, will help bring joy into your life.

You want to have a home that is peaceful. You want to have a home that is joyful and it starts with getting rid of some things.

I’m not saying you have to get rid of 80% of your stuff, but you should evaluate if there is anything in your home that needs to be thrown out.

Look for two areas in your home that you can use this 80/20 rule. It doesn’t have to be one of the areas that I’ve talked about. Those just seem like the biggest issues. Consider this 80/20 rule and how it can positively transform your home and make you feel more peaceful.

“What matters to you matters to God.” – Max Lucado

That quote is something that I’ve kept close to my heart. Ever since I heard it, I realized that God cares about my motherhood.

He cares about the stress that I have. He cares about the struggles that I have in my home, and He cares about yours too.

Take Action

I want to encourage you today to take action. Start to look at different areas in your life, and decide which items to pare down. This is going to allow you to experience the peace that God can give you whenever you start focusing less on stuff and more on Him.

If this is something that spoke to your heart and you feel like you need more guidance, I want to encourage you to check out my mini-course Peaceful Mom, Peaceful Home. It’s a program that I created that talks about creating a home that calms your heart.

This self-pace course is based on two ideas:

What matters to you, matters to God.

Your home can and should be a ministry to you and your family.

If a peaceful home is what you want your children to remember, then check out Peaceful Mom, Peaceful Home today!

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CONNECT WITH ASHLEY

Hey there! I’m Ashley

Believer. Wife. Mom. Educator. Speaker. I provide biblical resources for purpose-driven motherhood so you can be the confident mom you were called to be!